My favorite sports moment

Through my whole life I’ve been doing lots of various kinds of sports-related activities both inside Norwegian and American style. As a kid, I kicked the first soccer ball at the age of 3 and was at my first practice when I was 5. I’ve always loved soccer and therefore it’s probably pretty obvious that my favorite sports moment is a memory of my carrier in soccer.

In 2009 I and my club (Trond IL) travelled to Sweden to participate in a local international cup where teams from across the globe were taking place. We’d heard from before that this cup was a tougher kind of cup than the others we’d been on when it comes to physical playing and tackling. We had a great start winning the first 5 matches with an average of 5-0 in goal difference. Our passion and confidence carried on until the quarter-finals where we met a team from Germany with players almost twice our size and body strength. But we didn’t let that stop us. The score was 2-2 after the break and we got even more aggressive and showed that we really wanted this victory. As the end of the 90 minutes of the match occurred, the score was 3-3 and both teams were tired and exhausted. It wasn’t until the very last 10 seconds that out team received a free-kick right outside the 16-meter line. As me and a team-mate stood there considering who was going to take it, he whispered to me that I should go with the others and try to score by head. I accepted his order and walked to the rest of the group. He shot right at the goalie but the goalie wasn’t able to catch it due to the power of the shot. He punched the ball to the ground and didn’t spot me who saw the opportunity and sprinted towards the ball and shot it right between his legs. At first I didn’t actually realize that I had just saved my team from elimination until everybody jumped on me hugging and shouting words of joy.

I can also tell that we won the cup and made Trond IL known across Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Even considering the victory, my best memory from my carrier was my goal in the quarter-final.

- Jarand